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Cuyahoga County Pumps Cash Into Sports

It’s not *all* about the Browns…nor the Indians or Cavs, either. Cuyahoga County officials want the Northeast region to be a playing field for all kinds of sports events. And to that end, they bestowed a hefty chunk of cash on the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission today. Ideastream’s Brian Bull reports:

The county awarded $175,000 from its general fund to help the commission step up the number of athletic events that come to Northeast Ohio.

Nathan Kelly is the county’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Development. He says sports provides many benefits to the Greater Cleveland area.

“It attracts families, attention, it fills hotel nights, and restaurants, and it creates buzz,” explains Kelly. “And I’ll give an example. You’ve got the Senior Games, which the Sports Commission led…and that just wrapped up. And they had tens of thousands of competitors and visitors, and national news.”

Today’s announcement was made in North Olmsted, where the 2013 North American Gaelic Games Finals kicked off. Organizers say it could pump more than a million dollars into the local economy.

Kelly adds there will soon be three different NCAA events in the Greater Cleveland area.

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